Di Canio returns to provide the cutting edge

All the best: Glenn Roeder shakes the hand of his captain, Paolo di Canio

By Andrew Warshaw at Upton Park

6:40PM GMT 12 Jan 2002

West Ham (1) 1 Leicester (0) 0

ANOTHER SATURDAY, another painful defeat and no sign of an improvement. The odds are stacking up against Dave Bassett pulling off another Houdini act.

Paolo Di Canio's first-half strike condemned Leicester to their 14th Premiership defeat of the season. Was it the Italian's final sublime moment in front of the Upton Park fans? Certainly the PA announcer's warm tribute towards Di Canio at the end of a generally uneventful game suggested it might have been.

Any suggestion that Di Canio was already on his way to Manchester United was dispelled when the Italian was named in the starting line-up, having missed the FA Cup trip to Macclesfield reportedly a through mixture of flu and a hamstring injury.

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Glenn Roeder, the manager, has already rejected one bid for his captain of around £2 million, yet the home fans, the majority of whom seem prepared to forgive their mercurial hero leaving for Old Trafford, gave him their usual warm welcome.

The Hammers, who have conceded fewer goals at home but more away than any other team in the Premiership, were without the injured Michael Carrick but were otherwise at full strength, with Joe Cole keen to impress the watching Tord Grip, the England assistant coach.

Conversely, bottom-placed Leicester were missing their two most influential players in Matt Elliott and Muzzy Izzet, who were suspended. Dave Bassett, also without long-term casualties Gerry Taggart and Gary Rowett, had no choice but to throw his new signing, former Derby defender Jacob Laursen, straight into the back four.

An early intervention by the Danish international gave a hint of his potential value to the Foxes as the home team took immediate charge. Yet the best West Ham could manage in the opening half-hour was a John Moncur volley which Ian Walker gathered at the second attempt.

All that changed on 35 minutes. Frank Sinclair did well to block Cole's goalbound effort on the line but it was all to no avail. When the ball looped up in the air, Sebastien Schemmel headed it into the path of Di Canio, who rifled it home. The goal disrupted Leicester's game plan of trying to stop West Ham in the final third, but now the team with only 14 goals in their first 20 Premiership games suddenly had to find some way of improving.

To do that, of course, they had to get the ball off the side in claret and blue, which was no easy task, even for the tigerish Robbie Savage, with Cole enjoying himself so much in central midfield. Don Hutchison almost got on the end of a Trevor Sinclair cross and Christian Dailly headed over as West Ham sought to put the game out of reach. Then Walker thwarted Di Canio on the hour with a timely parry.

Leicester's options were limited with such an inexperienced bench yet, even taking this into account, they were woefully lacking in ideas. Only occasionally did they get the ball into West Ham's box but the closest they came to an equaliser were a couple of over-ambitious second-half penalty claims.